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Back My Darling Husband Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Booklist
  4. Dedication
  5. About the Author
  6. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  7. J A D E
  8. J A D E
  9. C A M
  10. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  11. J A D E
  12. J A D E
  13. S E B A S T I A N
  14. C A M
  15. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  16. J A D E
  17. J A D E
  18. C A M
  19. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  20. J A D E
  21. S E B A S T I A N
  22. C A M
  23. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  24. J A D E
  25. J A D E
  26. C A M
  27. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  28. J A D E
  29. J A D E
  30. J A D E
  31. J A D E
  32. C A M
  33. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  34. J A D E
  35. J A D E
  36. S E B A S T I A N
  37. J A D E
  38. C A M
  39. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  40. J A D E
  41. J A D E
  42. J A D E
  43. C A M
  44. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  45. J A D E
  46. J A D E
  47. J A D E
  48. J A D E
  49. S E B A S T I A N
  50. T H E   I N T E R V I E W
  51. A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
  52. Stranger in the Lake

But Tanya didn’t ask for any of that. She didn’t even hint at it. I mentioned once in passing that I missed playing with fabrics and textures and patterns, that finding the exact perfect color combination was once upon a time as satisfying to me as an orgasm. My sister would have called me shallow, my friends would have forgotten that conversation ever happened, but not Tanya. Tanya filed that little tidbit away and pulled it out not to use to her advantage—okay, maybe a little to her advantage—but also to mine.

Cam is wrong about Tanya. She can keep the key.

She grabs on to the arm I have wrapped around Baxter. “Well? What do you think?”

I think I don’t want her to leave. I think I need to figure out a way to signal for help. And if she picks up on the clues I’m about to slide into this conversation, I think I will love her forever.

“Sounds great, sign me up. Oh, and hey, did you ever ask your brother about next weekend?”

Tanya doesn’t have a brother, just three sisters who live on the outskirts of town, walking distance from where they stuck their mother in a memory care facility. That’s what she calls it, often and on repeat every time the two talk, that for the life of her she can’t understand why anybody would “stick” her in such an awful place. Tanya carries a lot of guilt for being miles away, but the point is, she has no brother.

She frowns. “My brother...”

“Yeah, he was going to come over and help Cam move the concrete table to the other side of the backyard, remember?”

“I see.” She’s puzzled, I can tell, but not quick enough to make the connection that something might be wrong. Not yet. She needs more.

I widen my eyes, flit them in the direction of the man with the gun. “Do you?”

“No, Jade. I don’t.”

I shake my head, a quick and subtle back-and-forth, were it not for the man watching from five feet away.

Don’t say it. For the love of God, keep your big mouth closed.

But Tanya Lloyd, neighborhood busybody and unsuspecting philanthropist, says the quiet part out loud: “Hon, what is going on? Because I know you know I don’t have a brother. Is everything okay?”

J A D E

5:39 p.m.

I stare at Tanya, and I don’t know how to stop this train. My little blunder with her fictional brother just now could have gotten her killed. It could still, if she doesn’t let it go.